Not So Different
by MeryKey-7
Summary: StandAlone. Max opens up to the most unexpected person. MA. You should read it, it's not as bad as the summary!


**Not so Different**

**Summary**: Max opens up to the most unexpected person. M/A

**Disclamer**: The characters of Dark Angel do not belong to me. They belong to a guy named James and I think the other´s one name is something like Eglee or something like that.

**Author´s Note**: So, did is just a little something I came up the other day. It's not really something I wanted to include in my other story, The Realization that You're In Love, so, this is my first Stand Alone I suppose. I've gotta tell you, Stand Alones are not something I'm use to do. TRTYIL started as a stand alone, but thenI decided to carry on and on and on... so, I'm kinda proud that I was able to stop rambling for a change! So, tell me what you think… I'm not sure, I think there's something missing… anyway, you tell me!

* * *

Alec tossed the few items of clothing he owned on a medium size black bag that laid on his bed. There were not many things in his apartment that actually meant anything to him, so he would not be carrying much.

He was leaving Terminal City.

It had taken Alec four months to make this decision. He should not have stayed in the first place. The moment the policemen retreated from Terminal City after the hostage situation at Jam Pony, he should have left. But her speech and the fact that he had actually believed her words had made him stay. He still believed what she had said.

But Alec had drawn a line. And today, Max had crossed it.

It had all started when they began bickering with each other over a silly mistake Alec had made. Ok, maybe not that silly. He had almost gotten some of them killed during their attempt to get ammo, and as soon as they made it back, unharmed, Max had jumped down his throat. Alec had taken her yelling and insults like a man for he knew she was right. But two weeks after the incident, this morning, Max had brought that particular subject back into the conversation. Alec finally snapped. Mole won the bet he had started with the rest of the Transhumans. And they said horrible things to each other.

'_I can't stand you anymore!' said Max._

'_Fine! I'll get the hell out of Terminal City as soon as you stop bitching! You think that'll be any time soon?' he snapped. _

_She knew he meant it. He would leave. And that angered her even more. _

'_Oh, well, that's just great! There's the proof of what I've saying for the last ten minutes! Totally unreliable! Really brave, Alec! Just run away from your problem instead of facing it!' she spat out._

'_Look who's talking,' he said, hurt, 'I'm not the one who left Manticore when things got a little too rough. I'm not the one who leaves whenever things get too hard. I stay, and I put up with things. But everything has a limit. I've reached mine, so, yeah, I'm bailing out!' He looked at her for a moment, and then added, just for the sole purpose of hurting her at least a bit, 'That's what you do, after all, don't you?'_

_After a few seconds in which Max had looked at him with such a fury, she answered his statement. 'Maybe you should leave. It's not like we really need you here, anyway.'_

The last thing she had said had been the one thing that had helped him decide his departure. The fact that she did not need him made things much easier; he felt less guilty about leaving. But it still hurt, because, as much as he tried to deny it, he did need her.

Someone entered the apartment he shared with Joshua without knocking first. He knew it was not Josh for the steps were light and short, instead of long and heavy as Joshua's. His bedroom door opened to reveal a very serious looking Max.

He sighed and rolled his eyes. She came back for more; one last round of yelling and bitching before leaving.

'Please, don't go,' were the simple words that came out of Max's lips.

Alec did a double take. He was not sure if he had heard right. And as he looked at her, the way she stood in front of him, the way she looked at him, a stare he had come to recognize as her nervous stare, he knew he had heard just fine.

'What?' Alec managed to say.

She looked down, took a deep breath and sighed. 'I don't want you to go.' Then, a few moments later, she added, 'Please.'

He put down the pair of jeans he was about to throw in the bag. 'Why?'

She knew he would ask that. _Why?_ He had put up with some much of her mood swings, he was entitled to that question; and she owed him an answer.

'I know what you're thinking. But I don't expect you to be perfect, Alec. I know I tell you you're a screw up and treat you like I can't trust you. But you're the only person in here I can really trust.'

He could not believe what Max was saying. She was willingly opening herself up in front of him, just like she had done a few months back, when she confessed to him that she had killed her brother Ben just as he had asked her to.

'The truth is we're not so different. I've just been living in the real world longer. I suppose you're more… naïve in that sense,' she said with a small smile, thinking that it was strange to see Alec as naïve. 'I used to go through life not worrying ´bout anyone else, all I cared was me. Just running, and having some fun. I used to "enjoy" an occasional heist. But then things changed. Everything got too serious, too dangerous… too fast. And here I am, in charge of over 150 transgenics; trying not to get them killed. So, yeah, I know I can get a bit bitchy,' Alec raised one of his eyebrows, 'Ok, I'm a total bitch, sometimes… Ok! Most of the time. And I know I don't ever thank you for what you do around here. So, I just want you to know that I **am** grateful for what you do.'

Alec smiled. Yeah, she always had the best speeches. He simply nodded, thinking she was done, but then she started again.

'I worry about you—all of you.' She sighed, in frustration, for she seemed to be unable to find the words she meant to say. 'I don't want anyone to get hurt or killed… especially not you. That's why I get mad at you when you pull your little stunts like the one on the last heist. I need you to pay more attention, Alec, 'couse I don't know what would become of Terminal City without you.'

'Max, you're the leader here,' argued Alec.

'I may be, but sometimes I don't know what I'm doing, Alec. I don't have most of you guy's training. I guess that's why we make such a good team, uh? You got the training, I got the dirty moves.' She smiled. 'You shouldn't go. You should stay; for TC… for Josh… for me?' she could not help blushing at the end.

He felt the need to surround her small but powerful body with his arms. He felt the need to be close to her, like no one else had ever been before; a need he had never felt before, not for her, not for any other woman. He could not understand why he felt like that. Perhaps it was because Manticore had never taught what love was or how it felt.

He nodded, slowly, and tried to look away from her, but her eyes had him hypnotized. There was nothing else he wished to see. And for some odd reason, Max felt the same.

She had never paid much attention to his face; too familiar, too many painful memories. But, lately, whenever she would look at him she did not see Ben in him anymore; she just saw Alec. Her SIC Alec; her friend Alec; her… something.

'Where's Logan?' Alec suddenly asked, still immerse in her eyes. He needed to know if this was real, and it would not be with old Eyes Only in the picture. 'I haven't seen him in a while.'

'He's out of town; decided to change his place of operation. White's too close to find him,' she answered. Was she really saying all of this to Alec of all people?

'So, what? You're gonna leave town every once in a while to visit him, or…?' he asked again, as he never got the answer he had been looking for.

'No. He'll help us, from wherever he decides to settle down.'

None of them realized how close to each other they were until she was able to feel his breath. And then she felt his hands on hers, and then his hands moved to her waist, and her hands made her way up his chest and laid them over his shoulders. And then, neither of them could hold back anymore.

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Reviews are mostly welcome! 


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